By James Gwati-A celebrated Zimbabwean and Internationally recognised female lawyer who abandoned President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s advisory post, Petina Gappah, has joined the African Continental Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat.

Gapa quitted Mnangagwa’s trade and investment advisory role in 2019 after being frustrated by the Zanu PF leader’s close lieutenants, who she accused of pursuing personal wealth accumulation at the expense of genuine reforms to turn around the country’s fortunes.

“I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat as Principal Legal Advisor in the Office of the Secretary-General. It’s an honor to use the skills and experience of a lifetime to assist SG Wamkele Mene and AU Members to build the AfCFTA,” she posted on her Twitter handle, Wednesday.

Gappah, a lawyer and writer, was among Mnangagwa’s first group of top aides at the birth of his new dispensation in 2017, globetrotting with the President and driving the government’s re-engagement efforts with the Western world.

She was part of a government delegation that travelled with Mnangagwa to Davos for the World Economic Forum last year, leading the government’s international public relations campaign.
Before that, she had worked at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva for 17 years.